I. Field of the Invention
This invention and disclosure represents one of a series stemming from a systems engineering analysis of the procedures and apparatus currently used by professional musicians, professors of music, and students of double reed instruments, for the fabrication, tailoring and adjustment of reed assemblies used with such instruments.
II. Description of the Prior Art
The two fundamental, recognized and generally-used reed assembly configurations employed with the bassoon are identifiable as the "French" type and "German" type. The major differences between these two, from a physical conformation and fabrication standpoint rather than a sound-producing viewpoint, are in the shape, cross-sectional areas, and dimensions of the lateral tapers of the "lay" of the reeds, as shown in the attached drawings, in which:
FIGS. 1 through 3 represent a pictorial illustration of the "French", or single-wedge reed assembly, showing the fairly uniform, sloped configuration of the lay of the cane material from the shoulder to the tip, and:
FIGS. 4 through 6 are similar views of the "German", or double wedge type of reed assembly, illustrating the thickened heart or arched cross-sectional regions of the cane material near the shoulder, and change in slope of the lay in the region of the tip.
Another type of longitudinal contour of reed assemblies, normally referred to as the "parallel" type, because of difficulties in fabrication, control, and inability to meet individual performer preferences and types of sounds produced, has not been widely applied, nor is it in general use. In the parallel type, uniform thicknesses of the reed cane material must be maintained throughout the lay.
The reed assembly in FIG. 1 delineates the fabrication methods and treatments which are applied to the basic reed cane material, designated 101, prior to the assembly procedures, particularly to those cross-sectional regions related to the "lay" or tip end of the assembly, designated 105. The lay end is considered to originate at the shoulder 104, and extend to the tip 105. The tube portion 103 incorporates three wrappings of discrete wire sections; the first 107 close to the shoulder, and the second and third wire wrappings approaching the Bocal end 106 of the assembly. The third wire wrapping is covered with binding 110 usually consisting of a combination of thread and cementing organic materials. The first and second wire sections are thereby left available for adjustment of the pressure applied to the cane reed material at the tip end of the reed assembly.
The reed assembly of FIG. 4, illustrating the "German" or double-wedge type, incorporates the same features and includes the same designators for each of them. The marked differences comprise the clearly indicated first wedge section of the lay 111 and the second wedge section 112. The other features are the "heart" or arched cross-sectional conformation 114 near the shoulder, and the tapered cross-section at the tip of the reed assembly.
The double wedge contour is probably the most popular, and approximations thereto most common, because of the number of variants possible to meet individual performer preferences, and the pitch and timbre of the sounds produced. It is to be understood that the reed cane material as supplied commercially is in the form of strips of cane with the exterior surfaces intact, gouged-out to a thickness of about 1.02-1.06 mm., an internal radius of approximately 11.4 mm., and cut into strips about 117 mm. long. Such individual strips are mounted on a cylindrical drum and "profiled" from the intended shoulder to the tip area; they then are reversed on the drum, and the other end again profiled. It is therefore critical that each end be profiled exactly the same so that both cane sections of the individual reed assemblies will be identical, and that each such sub-operation be controllably repeatable, so that successively processed reed assemblies will be consistently and readily reproducible.
A number of machines and apparatus are commercially marketed which are purportedly capable of enabling such double-wedged lay contours to be achieved. All such profiling apparatus examined and observed to date possess several disadvantages and inadequacies which, in combination, make it impossible to even approximate the idealized double-wedge lay contours, or to reproduce with any precision a contour which has been found capable of providing a "concert" quality reed assembly meeting the individual bassoonist's criteria of sound quality acceptability. In addition, since the initial cost of such equipment is in the order of $500.00, that cost materially limits the ability of individual bassoonists, professors and students to procure such apparatus.